Quickies: Healthcare while Trans, Voting while Trans, and Bill Donohue Sadz
By - Healthcare a Challenge for Transgender People – Everything from finding healthcare professionals who know how to treat you, who will treat you with dignity, and who you can afford to see are huge barriers to accessing treatment for the transgender community.
- Study: Voter ID Laws May Disenfranchise Trans Voters – The Williams Institute study looked at voter ID laws in 10 states. “Approximately 24,000 trans citizens whose identification documents do not reflect their correct gender could become disenfranchised. This is an estimated 28 percent of the states’ voting-eligible trans population.”
- Study Finds More Churches Accepting of Gays and Lesbians – Duke University study comparing accpetance rates from 2006 to 2012 found the greatest increase among “black Protestant churches, white liberal churches, and non-Christian congregations.” Unfortunately, Catholic congregations are bucking the trend, becoming even more intolerant of lesbians and gays.
- For LGBT Youth, It Doesn’t Get Better in Foster Care – LGBTs are over represented in the foster care system, many leaving home due to family rejection. Unfortunately, many face the same problems in the foster care system, with foster families and social workers who reject them for their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
- The 2015 NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade will have More LGBT, Less Catholic League – For the first time ever the parade is allowing 1 openly gay group, OUT@NBCUniversal, to march. For Bill Donohue’s Catholic League, that’s too many; the Catholic League won’t be marching next year. Good trade.
- Facebook’s Selective Policy Enforcement Outs Drag and Adult Performers – Facebook requires that accounts display the user’s legal name, and they’re targeting their enforcement of the rule on performers who use obvious pseudonyms: drag artists and adult performers. Apparently Facebook slept through the entire Google+ real names fiasco. How many of us in the LGBT community would be forced into the cyber closet if they could only post under their legal names? How many trans people would quit Facebook altogether if forced to post under their legal names? Petition here.
Featured Image: Transgender Activist via Huffington Post
Re: Voting while trans. Yeah, I was just talking to a nearby precinct chair about this issue. I’m transgender, a volunteer organizer for Battleground Texas, and a Volunteer Deputy Registrar for Travis County. I combine those things by informing my gender queer siblings on how they can vote w/o ID here in Texas (there is a way!), and offer to register all-comers no questions asked.
Most people don’t realize just how toxic ID laws are to people like me, and I’m lucky. I’m lucky because I can afford the medical professionals I need to write the letters that I need to change my name and gender marker. I can afford the court costs. I can afford to pay for new IDs. I may, just may, be able to vote this year if I hurry to the court house this week and I find myself in front of a friendly judge.
Most of us can’t.